Help me find a way to put a cap on the bottom of a tee on my liner that is in my chimney.

[Josh Hufford]

My house has a brick chimney on the side that has a liner installed in it. The installer that put the liner in put a tee in where the pipe coming through the wall from the stove goes into the liner, and left the bottom of the tee (facing the ground) open to make cleaning easier as there is a door at the bottom off the chimney. My stove is a Harmann TL200, which is a top loader with a secondary burner. After installing the stove and being disappointed with its performance I made some posts on here and some very good advise suggested that the open bottom of the tee is probably reducing the draw. So I bought a cap for it, and when I cleaned the liner this summer, I tried to figure out a way to pull the cap up into the liner and keep it in place. I used some thin electric fence wire and pulled the cap up from inside the house, reaching my arm through the pipe that goes through the wall. The cap seem to stay in place quite well. The first few nights the stove worked awesome, so much better than it did before. No smoke coming out of the top when loading, the secondary burner works much better. Then I noticed the stove started working poorly again, and I opened the door at the bottom of the chimney and there was the cap, it had fallen off. I was thinking of possibly getting on the roof and running electric fence wire all the way down the liner, pulling the cap in place, then tying the wire tightly to the cap at the top of the liner. But if any of you guys have a better idea I'd really appreciate it!

Thanks.

 

[My Oslo heats my home]

My better idea is getting that fool of an installer back there to do the job right. I feel sorry for you, you had no idea. After all you hired a company to do this work and they sent out what you thought was a qualified, competent installer to do the job.
excuse my rant, it just pisses me off to see shotty work and putting peoples well being at risk.

Call up the company that did the work and have them come out to fix the problem they created in the first place

 

[altmartion]

how long ago was the liner installed?

 

[Josh Hufford]

My better idea is getting that fool of an installer back there to do the job right. I feel sorry for you, you had no idea. After all you hired a company to do this work and they sent out what you thought was a qualified, competent installer to do the job.
excuse my rant, it just pisses me off to see shotty work and putting peoples well being at risk.

Call up the company that did the work and have them come out to fix the problem they created in the first place

That is partially my fault. He asked me if I wanted it done that way to make cleaning easier, and at the time I didn't know better. Yes he should have known better as an installer, but this was a used stove that they had, and they don't normally sell this brand/type so I'm giving him some slack, but maybe I'm being too nice. I still like the idea of having the tee there to make cleaning easier, just would like to find a good way to put the cap back in place after cleaning.

 

[Josh Hufford]

how long ago was the liner installed?

Last December.

 

[My Oslo heats my home]

Last December.

forgive my outburst but did you try to contact the installer?

 

[altmartion]

you basicly gave him permission, but on the other hand he should have never left an open end on a chimney. did this get inspected?

 

[Josh Hufford]

forgive my outburst but did you try to contact the installer?

Not a problem, I understand. No and for other reasons besides this I'd like to just cut my losses with this installer and not deal with them any longer.

 

[Josh Hufford]

you basicly gave him permission, but on the other hand he should have never left an open end on a chimney. did this get inspected?

No and I'm pretty sure that none are required here. I don't think it would be considered open because it is still inside the brick chimney.

 

[My Oslo heats my home]

Is there a way you can poke a hole through the center of the cap, place some wire in there in order to pull it up with one hand from the T? If so, if you can set up your cap at the cleanout, maybe using some rutland stove cement and putting a bead around the outside of the cap. Pull the wire up through the T and seating the cap back into the bottom of the T. Maybe let the cement set up a bit and maybe attempting to secure the cap with a screw or two. not sure what will fit in there after the cement sets. Not even sure it will hold but worth a try

 

[Josh Hufford]

Is there a way you can poke a hole through the center of the cap, place some wire in there in order to pull it up with one hand from the T? If so, if you can set up your cap at the cleanout, maybe using some rutland stove cement and putting a bead around the outside of the cap. Pull the wire up through the T and seating the cap back into the bottom of the T. Maybe let the cement set up a bit and maybe attempting to secure the cap with a screw or two. not sure what will fit in there after the cement sets. Not even sure it will hold but worth a try

That is an interesting idea but I don't see any way to screw it, but I might be able to borrow a right angle cordless drill from a friend, that might fit in there. I had thought about that before but I wanted to be able to get the screws out again for future cleaning and didn't know how easily they would come out after use.

 

[My Oslo heats my home]

I have the same setup with a T and a cleanout underneath it. I have never had it apart, it gets cleaned once a year.
Also, if you know anyone that has smaller drills, like the 9.6 volt fit in the palm of your hand style (not full size). Your
hand and drill may fit in together.

 

[webby3650]

How tall is it? Whats the roof like?
If it's not bad I'd pull it out and attach that cap properly. He should have known better! It doesn't matter what stove is hooked to that flue, the T cap cannot be left off.

Here's a true story:
A good friend of mine had a chimney built by a local chimney sweep company, the did a block chase with a SS flue, no clay. Then they poured insulation around the liner. Due to lack of experience, he put the clean out door near the ground like normal and left the T cap off so HE could clean it from the ground. The first issue caused by this was an overfire, like all over glow, totally nuclear! A week or so later they came home to a house full of smoke! The draw totally bypassed the stove this time. Filled their brand new house with smoke!
The guy could have put the cleanout door right by the T cap, then he could reach in and remove it. Instead he chose to leave the cap off like a fool.

You could cut a hole in the block and add a cleanout door to give you access.

 

[Josh Hufford]

How tall is it? Whats the roof like?
If it's not bad I'd pull it out and attach that cap properly. He should have known better! It doesn't matter what stove is hooked to that flue, the T cap cannot be left off.

Here's a true story:
A good friend of mine had a chimney built by a local chimney sweep company, the did a block chase with a SS flue, no clay. Then they poured insulation around the liner. Due to lack of experience, he put the clean out door near the ground like normal and left the T cap off so HE could clean it from the ground. The first issue caused by this was an overfire, like all over glow, totally nuclear! A week or so later they came home to a house full of smoke! The draw totally bypassed the stove this time. Filled their brand new house with smoke!
The guy could have put the cleanout door right by the T cap, then he could reach in and remove it. Instead he chose to leave the cap off like a fool.

You could cut a hole in the block and add a cleanout door to give you access.

Its about 25Ft from the top to the ground, 20ft to the bottom of the liner. The liner is insulated, I have no idea how much trouble it would be to pull out.

Cutting a hole through the brick is an interesting idea, I may go that route. It would sure make things easier in the long run.

 

[webby3650]

Its about 25Ft from the top to the ground, 20ft to the bottom of the liner. The liner is insulated, I have no idea how much trouble it would be to pull out.

Cutting a hole through the brick is an interesting idea, I may go that route. It would sure make things easier in the long run.

It's not a big deal. It can be done with a diamond blade on an angle grinder and a chisel. It would only take an hour or less.

 

[Josh Hufford]

It's not a big deal. It can be done with a diamond blade on an angle grinder and a chisel. It would only take an hour or less.

I know there is a tile (I think) liner inside the chimney. Would that cause a problem?

 

[webby3650]

I know there is a tile (I think) liner inside the chimney. Would that cause a problem?

No, it's no longer needed with that liner in there. Just knock hole in it big enough to work, then stuff come ceramic wool insulation in there around the T. As it is, there is no insulation on the T itself. After that cap is on, there is no reason to get back in there. The chimney should really be swept from above, then the stove pipe removed to clean out the bottom of that T. The stove pipe needs cleaned everytime the chimney gets cleaned anyway.
That cap will most likely need to be cleaned each time. Unless that roof is particularly hard, that's the route that should be taken.

 

[Josh Hufford]

Well I bought a metal handle and screwed it to the inside of the cap. I then pulled the cap up into place and with the handle I was able to get a good grip on it and pull it up over the tee. I then cut and tied the wire I used to pull it up into place around two screws that were holding the tee in place. I'm hopeful that it will stay in place this time. It cooled down enough today to start a fire, so far the stove is working fantastic. Amazing how much better it works with that cap in place.